It’s 5 o’clock on a Friday and most self-respecting office drones are at Happy Hour. But not me. I really, really can’t wait until Jeff decides to grace us with his presence on Fridays once more. I know I shouldn’t complain, but I’m anxious to get home and spend a couple of hours with my Aunt Maureen and cousin Barbara (they’re up visiting for the weekend) before I head out on our Ghost Hunting excursion tonight.

- It’s been a hectic day in the ES newsroom. Blame it on the impeding full moon and the psychological trauma caused by those first fluttery flakes of snow which fell this morning.

- Today’s top story was Melissa deCordova’s piece on the affect the EPA’s latest pollution regulations could have on area dairy farmers. It’s startling really, particularly since New York will be held to task because other states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed aren’t being as diligent as they should be. If these regs go into effect it could spell even darker days for our local dairy industry.

- I found a few Ghastly Ghost Stories in my inbox this morning. These stragglers brought our count to close to 140 entries for this year’s contest. Now, I just have to read them all… I think I see some sleepless nights in my future.

- Tyler Murphy graced us with another blog today. It doesn’t happen all that often, so please treat it with the reverence it deserves. (Smile, T. murph.)

- This afternoon, the ES staffers were all focused on a common theme – Stephen King movies. That’s right, we were wrapping up our write-ups for the DVD Patrol’s next Toddster Team-up. Look for it in next Friday’s edition.

- While we were all ruminating about horror movies, Melissa deCordova was enmeshed in a nightmare of her own. When the call came in this morning that Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino would be in Greene today, she headed to the southern reaches of the county in hopes of meeting up with him at Nathanael Greene’s Publick House. Unfortunately, Paladino was a no-show at the restaurant, owned by Enzo and Irene Olivieri.

I find the whole thing kind of puzzling, since we received no official press release from Paladino’s office about the visit, which was also to include a stop at Raymond. And when we called the campaign office this morning to confirm the times and locations, our messages went un-returned.

Melissa joked that perhaps he’d read my column from last week and suggested I assure his office that I was too busy putting on lipstick – a reference to yesterday’s column – to go to Greene myself. (Even I had to admit that was a good one.)

- Tonight is the Evening Sun’s annual ghost hunting excursion. Armed with flashlights, digital recorders and, hopefully, an EMF reader just like the ones the “professionals” use on TV, we’ll be hitting some haunts in Oxford. Former ES Staffer Jessica Lewis has promised to join us, and we’ll have two local mediums with us as well, guiding our paranormal investigation. It’s guaranteed to be a good time, and you’ll get to read all about our exploits next week.

- I’m going to forgo my standard sign off tonight, because a friend reminded me today that it’s important to be the change we want to be in the world. So…